Morning Minute: Saylor Gains Access to Another $44B to Buy Bitcoin

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Today’s top news:

The move is designed to keep feeding Strategy’s Bitcoin-buying machine, even as the pace of purchases briefly slowed.

Notably, STRC accounts for nearly half of the total authorization. The company recently boosted STRC’s monthly dividend to 11.5%, leading to a spike in demand that helped fuel Saylor’s large buys earlier this month.

Bitcoin did not react to the news, holding at $70,500 on the day.

Key Details

• Strategy can issue $44B in fresh equity. • The authorization includes $21B MSTR, $21B STRC, and $2.1B STRK. • STRC has enabled Strategy to raise more than $1.5B this month.

That would directly target one of the fastest-growing use cases for firms like Kalshi and Polymarket, both of which have pushed aggressively into sports-related markets.

For context of how big this is, Kalshi's weekly sports volume makes up 70-85% of its total handle and Polymarket's sports volume is 35-40% of its total.

And the timing is notable, with Kalshi fresh off the news of its latest $22B fundraise.

State gaming regulators argue these products are sports betting and should be treated like gambling. The platforms argue they are federally regulated event contracts and belong under derivatives oversight instead.

Congress now appears ready to test that question directly with legislation.

Key Details

• WSJ reported the bill would be bipartisan and would target sports bets on prediction markets, not the entire category. • Kalshi’s sports volume makes up 70-85% of its total volume across platforms. • The timing is notable because prediction markets have just had a major momentum streak, with large new partnerships, rising volumes, and fresh private-market funding.

It was a busy day for prediction markets, beyond the WSJ report of the new bipartisan bill.

Polymarket also updated its insider-trading rules and emphasized a “multi-layered monitoring system” for suspicious activity, while Kalshi has also been tightening controls as the sector faces more political and regulatory attention.

And Polymarket recently said it is working with Palantir to build surveillance systems for sports-focused prediction markets.

Key Details

• Polymarket’s new referral program includes traders >$10k in volume and will include up to 30% rewards • Polymarket’s new fee structure varies by market type and peaks at 1.8% • Kalshi banned athletes, coaches and politicians from trading

Coinbase users complained after receiving repeated March Madness push notifications encouraging them to make sports-related predictions. The backlash on X got large enough to become a trending topic, with multiple users arguing the notifications felt more like sports-gambling ads than a normal crypto exchange experience.

Coinbase’s app homepage was prominently featuring March Madness promotion at the top of the screen, while some users said they were getting several notifications a day.

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong replied that the criticism was “a fair point” and said more customization options would be added.

Key Details

• Users complained about receiving multiple push notifications per day. • Coinbase’s app homepage was also featuring a March Madness ad prominently. • Armstrong responded publicly and promised more customization options.

Warren sent a 12-page letter focused on Step’s previous crypto activity and raised concerns about how a large youth audience could be exposed if crypto features returned.

Step had previously marketed itself as the first U.S. platform to let teens, with parental consent, buy digital assets such as Bitcoin, and later expanded that access to dozens of crypto assets and NFTs.

Key Details

• Warren’s letter is 12 pages long and focuses heavily on Step’s prior crypto activity. • Step previously let teens buy crypto with parental consent. • Beast Industries recently received a $200M investment from BitMine.